Signing Off...

10 months ago I stepped on a plane headed for Japan, not knowing what to expect and wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Four months later and I was on a plane to England, once again wondering what was lying in wait for me across the Atlantic.

It's funny, I thought England would be a breeze after Japan, but it turned out to have its own set of difficulties and frustrations that I never saw coming. Adapting to Lancaster University was incredibly difficult for me and I don't think I ever successfully got in the zone there. I might as well just come out and say it. I hated "Lamecaster" University. The big lecture halls, the professors being strangers to me, not being academically challenged enough, poor discussions in my seminar classes, being told that as an English/Japanese major I had no hope of handling a history course, etc. Basically, Lancaster is everything Beloit College isn't. (Thank God.) But I think it took going to Lancaster Uni to truly appreciate everything Beloit College has given me.

There was a major upside to the lack of academics, though. I was able to travel for really long periods of time, which wouldn't have been possible if Lancaster University was a proper school. I was able to visit France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Ireland, Wales, Northern Ireland, England, and Switzerland. Not too shabby, if I say so myself. And having that small taste of world travel has only made me want to see and do even more.

Last summer, my world was so much smaller. Now it's opened up and expanded in brilliant and unexpected ways. I still feel like I don't know much about anything, but hopefully my experiences this year have helped me become a little less ignorant about the rest of the world.

I find it really hard to describe my study abroad experiences most of the time because there's just so much to say I don't even know where to begin. Study abroad is a constant roller coaster of emotion most of the time. Some days you're looking out across glittering Paris from atop Notre Dame Cathedral and feeling like the world is filled with beauty and possibilities and some days you're sitting in your dorm room in northern England eating Chinese take away and feeling small and lonely. Study abroad mostly consists of low lows and high highs, but after having lived through both, I would relive the lows again and again if it meant I got the highs too.

I wouldn't have missed this experience for anything.

I came home to the US last Saturday, so this will be my last blog post on this blog. It's been quite a year and I can barely believe my study abroad adventures are finished. Fortunately, I don't think my traveling days are over just yet. I don't yet know where this path of mine is taking me, but I'm excited to be on it.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes,
K. Stainbrook